A Story of the Sea
by Gaia caecilia
Summary: In loneliness, Ulmo walks along the sea shore in the hopes of alleviating his pain, before meeting a lady who changes much for him. In the end that meeting will change a lot more than one Vala.
1. Chapter 1

See, I arent't dead! Anyway, here is another little story that has occasionally been blurted out in bits and pieces from my brain. Hopefully you all like.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Tolkien, or any of his works yada yada yada, Original character are mine, if you don't like don't read. This is unbeta'd, I think I have sorted spelling mistakes but don't bet on it, and no I don't make any money out of the results of my imagination.

Anyway

A Story of the Sea

Chapter 1

The silver haired being wondered along the shoreline disconsolately. A bitter smile twisted his mouth as he thought. There was a reason he did not often join his brethren in council. Only he and Nienna had not bound among them, and in his case it was not for lack of desire for one who matched him, completed him in his duty. It was simply for lack of a suitable candidate.

Nienna was neither interested nor suitable. He and she simply did not match. During their time in the Timeless Halls he had not met another of his kind suited to form any form of partnership with and it had not occurred to him when he accepted _Atar's_ request to be one of those who would form and guide this world _Atar_ had created that he would loose any chance at finding partnership.

A marriage between Valar was not the same as among _mirrowanw_ _ë_ – incarnates, elves, humans, dwarves, etc. It was not about procreating or anything physical, or even love in some ways. It was partnership. It was about having someone to lean on even as you supported them. A sort of very close friendship. Even Eru did not deny that even his _ainur_ needed someone to lean on, to support and to have with a deeper level of relationship than that that existed between those of their order. Already some on them had 'siblings', brothers and sisters as intended in terms of relationship by Eru. Namo, Irmo and Nienna were siblings as the _eldar_ saw them – though they had a different term in Valarin from that for sibling in the sense the eldar meant the term. They simply used, when not speaking Valarin, the closest available term in the language they were speaking.

For instance the eldar described all of their brethren but he and Niena as married to another of their brethren. Married implied certain things that they did not really need to do and a sort of relationship that the eldar had with one to whom they were partnered that simply did not really happen, or at least need to happen between espoused Valar and maia. Of course it didn't, they had no need to reproduce, they were not physical beings and Eru made any more with simple thought if he felt the need for more of them – not that he was aware of _atar_ having ever done so. They did not even have physical forms naturally, or gender. Any gender applied was simply a construct from when they constructed physical forms for the benefit of those who where bound to physical form.

Even so having a physical had its benefits. He knew that his brethren, both of his own order and the lower order, that were espoused sometimes used fleshly forms to engage in the eldarin definition of marriage for all that they had no need to do so. In his case it was more that it was rather hard to engage in pacing or other similar behaviours without physical form.

There was a sort of decadent pleasure in his pacing along the beautiful beaches of Arda, for all that the lands were not so bright and pure as those lands in Aman. The darkness, the lack of purity, that little edge, the softness almost made pacing along rather more enjoyable. When one was discontent and unhappy, brooding even, one did not want the world around to be perfect, bright and conventionally beautiful. The more rugged beauty – almost in spite of but also because of its imperfections – was more suited to his mood.

As if to aid in his brooding, his brother Valar made the cloudy sky break into a light rain, greying the already grey sky even more. Somehow the rain was most satisfying to his dark, grey mood. He carried on pacing along the rugged, rocky shoreline.

The rain went from light to heavy and before all that long it went from heavy to blistering thunderstorm. The term _sturm und drang_ sprung into his mind for no apparent reason and he knew not where it came from exactly but it fit his mood very well. He carried on his one directional pacing, further along the desolate coast, even as the storm continually worsened.

He did not notice the storm, or the building built into a rock formation that eventually came into view, too caught in his own brooding over his own loneliness to really see anything much. He was brought back to the present and his placing by a loud call coming from said housing.

His silver head shot up and he realised it was an elven sounding voice, though only sort of. It had elven beauty to it but the voice was female. Female and too deep to be an elven female's voice for all that there was the beauty of an elf in it's tone. He had never heard an elleth with a voice anything other than a pleasing soprano before. Elven voiced usually were middling to high in timbre, rather than low as human voices often were, or very low as all voices of that race of his smith brother's, the dwarves or naugrim as the eldar called them.

Startled he looked up. It was then he saw the lone building-come-cave that was along the shoreline he had been wandering up. In it's doorway stood a feminine figure calling to him while trying to keep the door at least semi closed against the storm.

Without thinking he went over to the female who ushered him into her dwelling. Once inside he turned to her wondering why she had been calling him. Once he did he looked at her better.

She was tall as any elleth with hair that at first appeared dark brown or maybe black, it was hard to tell in the low lighting, but when she moved to look at him, the damp hair shimmered with the bluish silver that marked the _Lindar_ or the _Telerin_ as the other elven races called them. It was odd to see dark hair with that shimmer, something he was more accustomed to seeing on white blonde hair. The next thing he noted was features that were, for lack of a better description, a little bit more solid than the average elf's. Still sculpted and beautiful but, well, more solid. He could think of no other way to put it. High sculpted cheekbones and sweeping eyebrows with that were most definitely beautiful but there was a solid earthiness that was not common to elves. Elves had sculpted features but with an otherworldliness to them. That otherworldliness was not present in this strange female's face. Equally her build was just a little bit too strong of form, not quite willowy enough, to be that of an elf. It was too curvy and feminine for an elf for all that she had delicately curved ears. Ears that, like the rest of her was elfin but not quite.

It took he some moments to realise the obvious. She must be a peredhil, part human and part elfin. Which begged the question as to where she had come from. He knew of no union that could have produced her. His brethren kept close eyes on those of mixed race for, even if elves and men did not truly get the significance of such progeny, he and his brethren knew the significance of the term _hybrid vigour_. The blending of elf and man, or maia and elf, or whatever, produced remarkable people. There was no example of such a mix that was not important to the entirety of Arda, Ea even. So how was there a peredhil here that they knew nothing of?

Such speculation was pushed away when she offered him her hospitality, and a towel. He had not noticed being soaked. He was lord of the Sea for Eru's sake. Water meant little to him. Even so he happily accepted the towel and hospitality and it finally occurred to him that the reason she had called to him was that she had seen a figure caught in the storm and, not knowing it was a being that would not care at all, had called to offer shelter. Deciding to pretend, as the _fana_ he wore implied, that he was simply a lost elf caught in a horrific storm, he happily accepted her hospitality.

As he settled in he resolved to get to know this unknown peredhil, to find out how she came to be and why she was living so far from civilisation, be it elven or human. He had after all chosen this place to be in his loneliness because there was no-one there. However, this peredhil mystery was more than interesting enough to offset any loneliness for the nonce.

XXX

He spent a number of moons with the peredhil maiden and made a close relationship with her. He was more than mournful when he was finally forced to leave her home. As such he made many promises to return to his fair lady as soon as he could, after he gave up on convincing her to come with him, at least in the immediate future. He had not given up altogether.

It was not to be however.

As they say, things happened.

Starting with the reason for his recall to his duties as Lord of the Sea was that one peredhil all the Valar were aware of had begun his fateful journey and was now well on his way to the undying lands. He had intervened before leaving her house when Elwing, the other peredhil they knew of to still be alive, had cast herself and that cursed jewel of Feanor's into the sea to save the princess. Just after he left his lady he returned her to her true form on her husband's ship and the journey began, jewel lighting the way. By the time the two peredhil were at the shores of the blessed realm, he was where he should have been all along, though not with who he wished to have with him. It was just in time to be called to council with his brethren and act like of course he had been where they expected him to be all this time.

Much time later, after the launching of Vingilot into the skies and the sending off of the host of Maia and Elves that fought under the banner of the Valar, he was able to sneak back to where he had left his fair lady.

The first thing that tipped him off to the fact not all was right was the fact the door hung off its hinges. Paling, he rushed up to the house. It was gutted, clearly having been set on fire after it had been raided. Frantically he searched for remains. Sighing in relief he found none. If she was dead, it was not here that she had died. Slightly calmer now he put together the pieces he could see left after the fire.

After some time searching he hissed in surprise. There was a cot in the bed room. A badly damaged one, so much so that it had taken him a while to place the purpose of the simple contraption that was falling to pieces where it had been burnt. He only really got it, and its true significance when he found other things, things that had been protected by the hardwood box they had been contained in. Things like swaddling, a toy, a teething ring – things he was only distantly acquainted with from the times the Kings of the Eldar had presented their young to the Valar.

It took a little longer to put together the fact there was no evidence of anyone other than his lady and this child that had been living there with more information. He unceremoniously and rather ungracefully sat down as shock and the obvious conclusion hit him.

Then he became frantic again as he realised there was even more at stake than he had thought.

Without further ado he began to track, or attempt to track, what had happened. He called to his servants who kept him informed, far beyond that of even his Lord, to find what had happened to her and the child.

XXX

It was some time later they reported back to him in his halls under the sea. He had been distracting himself from his worry by following the ongoing war closely. It was not cheerful watching but it was most definitely distracting.

His servants painted the picture of what had happened for him somewhat tentatively, something he instinctively knew was not good.

She had, much to his relief, got out before the orcs came, sensing them and having taken the child and run. She had gone along the shoreline for a long time before finding another marauding band of Morgoth's minions. She just had time to hide her child before she had been killed.

That news had caused his heart to jump into his mouth in horror. A single crystalline tear ran down the ancient silver face and his hands gripped tightly around the arms of his throne. But he could not give in to grief yet, and so he pressed on for information about the child. That was where things became both hazy and just a bit strange, even by the standards of a higher Ainur.

A being, for lack of a better term, had coalesced round the child, protecting it from being found during the attack. It had then taken the child up in arms that formed solely for the purpose of picking the child up and then both being and child had disappeared.

He had rather urgently asked about the being, what could they tell him about who or whatever it was who took the child?

They had hesitated, looking at each other for support it seemed. A most un-maia-ly behaviour. Rather hesitantly one ventured that the being was unfamiliar in some ways but in others, well, it felt like one from the timeless halls. When pressed it was ventured that the closest thing the being felt like was, well, _Atar_. It almost wasn't quite but they weren't sure. Whether it was _atar_ or not, it was trying to be inconspicuous, which was why it was hard to place. The one thing they all agreed on was that the being was nothing other than purely good. He had sighed in relief at that.

The question of course, that begged, was who was it that had taken the child and where?

XXX

Anna leant back, long glowing hair falling over the rocks. She completely ignored the admiring looks she received from a number of people with her on the excursion. It was the end of a research trip and they were all enjoying a rest before going back to the university to collate their findings.

Gemma, fellow oceanographer and the only other female on the trip sat down beside her.

"So beyond finishing writing up our info, do you have any plans for after we get back?" Anna shook her head absently.

"Beyond checking on those genealogy enquiries I put out before we left? Not really." Matt, another member of the large expedition, sat down beside her. Anna resisted pulling a face, knowing that he was probably trying to find a way to flirt, despite over the last several months she had shown absolutely no interest in him.

"Genealogy enquiries? You're trying to trace your ancestors?" He asked, tone believably interested.

"Nope. I'm adopted. I'm trying to find hide or hair of who the bloody hell my blood parents were. My adopted parents are oddly vague about adopting me and don't seem to even remember a lot of the details. There is also a lack of paperwork about it, its weird and very annoying." He snorted with laughter, as did Gemma. Suddenly he went white, staring at the horizon.

Anna quickly rose and turned to look at whatever it was that got that reaction and went white herself.

Out of what had been a clear ocean, was baring down on them a huge wave. A part of her wanted to wallop herself for mentally listing off the scientific detail of the phenomena, even as she was frozen by the sight.

Suddenly the part of her that had always been called to the sea welled up and reacted even as her brain short circuited.

Gemma and Matt turned as some primal part of their brain sensed something beyond their ken and slowly, so did the rest of the party on the shore.

Anna was standing, floating about a foot off the rock, with a sheen of blue surrounding her. Turquoise eyes which had always had a sort of life and glow to them now shone as they fixed on the encroaching tsunami and that odd silver-blue sheen in her dark hair was far more evident than it had any right to be.

Power spun round her as she tucked her chin down and appeared to stare the tsunami down.

Water seemed to bubble as the huge wave _stopped_ still where it was nearing the beach, increasing in size as it did so.

No-one on the beach was exactly sure what happened next. The wave almost seemed to rear back before collapsing in on itself loudly. There was an almighty crashing sound as the wave folded down into the sea and there was splashes of water. Nonetheless not a single resulting wave reached the beach as the water began to flatten out and the sea returned to its previous calm.

Silence fell.

"Well, I think that made finding your parents more complicated, and much more important."

Anna blinked from where she had landed back on the rocks she'd been reclining on all of maybe five minutes ago, if five of the longest minutes of her life. Gemma was standing next to her with an utterly stunned look on her face. It was evidently the shock talking.

A glowing figure coalesced behind the girl as Anna continued to blink in surprise, the shock setting in.

"Lady Anna?" She turned to the voice without a thought as she heard her name. In front of her was a tall being that was only vaguely human, mostly just lights. "I think you better come with us."

"Why?" She asked reflexively. The being smiled.

"Because the people of this world, should they find out about this might not be very healthy for you to be around. You have unleashed your heritage and in months to come it will burn through more and more, changing everything from your physiology upwards. It will soon be clear you are not human as your heritage will break the illusion placed to protect you. I think you do not need telling why it would be bad for the humans to see that. We will take you to the place we live, a people akin to your father's people and train you in your heritage." She stared.

"But..." The figure smiled.

"I'm afraid it is a little late. We have just finished modifying your colleagues memories and are just placing them to complete the illusion, as well as removing all inconvenient evidence. To all in their world, you were lost at sea from that tsunami but by freak chance the rest of them survived. You will be mourned here but you will be among your own people." She stared at him, for lack of a better description of the being before her. The being realised he wasn't going to get an answer and leant in, taking her arm.

"Come, now." He said, voice totally inhuman and otherworldly. Before she knew it she was somewhere like nowhere she had seen before and the shock finally fully kicked in and she blacked out.

XXX

Anna woke in a room that could only be described as otherworldly. In some ways it wasn't even a room and she had a feeling its existence was more for her benefit than the beings who had made it. Within seconds of her opening her eyes one of the light beings she had seen before feinting coalesced in front of her.

"Ah, Lady Anna, you awaken!" She blinked at the being, not sure exactly what to say. "We were beginning to worry about how long you have been unconscious. We are aware the fact your mother was an incarnate weakens you but the humans who feint from shock seem to awaken quicker than you have, though we thought the excessive use of power before your body is used to it might have also exhausted you but we do not know that much about how incarnate bodies work, especially since your father was not incarnate and your mother was a mix of different types of incarnate beings and the human side is not really cut out to be powerful as the elven side, let alone the power gifted to you by your father, who..."

"I'm guessing you don't need to breath?" She asked dryly. She was still very much in shock and had so many question to ask, but that had to be the longest and most rambling sentence she'd ever heard. The being stopped and blinked at her.

"No, we are not truly incarnate so have no need for such functions as breathing." Anna raised an eyebrow at the being, who sounded slightly affronted.

"You speak like you are part of a hive mind." That seemed to confuse the being who instead of answering gave her the impression of a taken aback look for all that they hadn't formed a physical form that actually was detailed enough to have any type of expression.

Anna smiled sardonically.

"You always say 'we' not 'I', like you are not personally an individual entity. A hive mind is the term used when there are many beings but basically only one mind between the lot of them." The being seemed to consider that.

"We are not, as you termed it, a hive mind. We are not gifted free will as The One granted those who are incarnate. There is some individuality but not to the level of the people you have been raised round for our will is that of our lords and through them The One but we are not simply extensions of our lords' minds for if we so wish we can rebel and have independent thoughts and suchlike but we do share what I suppose in the human tongues would be called a telepathic mind link with all our fellows so we are much more a joint than you are accustomed to." Anna nodded.

"Which is why you speak as if you are not use to it very much. You are used to just thinking a thought and everyone else knowing what you are thinking. You have rarely had to put thoughts into words before have you?" The being gave the impression of shaking its head mutely. "So what are you anyway, and where am I?"

The being seemed taken aback for a moment again. It was like it didn't know how to respond.

"I forgot you would not just know, and we have been forbidden from drawing you into the mind web by The One. I will try to explain in words then." It was clear the being didn't like having to formulate its thoughts into words.

"To use human word, though they are misleading for they carry the prejudices of humanity, I am an Angel and this place is Heaven." She blinked at the angel in stunned disbelief.

"Right." She said flatly. "Erm..." She got the hint of a patronising smile.

"I forget you know nothing of who or what you are or your history. I shall give the abbreviated version for the sake of helping you to understand before we can teach you all in truth. In the beginning there was The One, who was thought itself and an entity which could think as much as it was thought. The One thought of the universe and so the universe was so. Once The One had thought the universe into being He thought the first choir into being and they added to the melody that was his thought and added harmonies as the One thought them into being. Then her created the second choir into being and we added our voices to the tune. Within the universe The One created He created worlds and groups of the First Choir would leave the Timeless Halls, the place outside the universe from which we worked on building the universe to his thought. With them would go some of the Second Choir to act as servants and aids to those groups of the first choir. Your father was one such, a group who incarnates have name Ainur, The first Choir of the group being known as Valar, and the second choir as Maia. We here are another such group. The first Choir here you would know as the Archangels – what I earlier referred to as our Lords for the human tongues have no better word to describe our relationship for all it is not that accurate. The second choir are merely Angels. Each group have a place outside but connected to the world we steward for The One. Heaven is the term humans have given our place, before creating all sorts of legends mixing up the home of the Angelic peoples with the place their souls are destined to go upon their death." Anna nodded.

"You said my father was basically another world's version of an Angel, or Archangel, you didn't specify which but also implied my mother was only part human but that other part was something else not celestial. What are they and how come I am here, and was raised in a world not their own?" The Angel paused for a long moment.

"Your father is one of fifteen Valar, including the Fallen One. Your mother was what is known as a peredhil. She is half human, half elf. As for how you ended up here, well, that is a long story of which the angels only know the last part. The One brought you to us as a young baby and told us we where to find you a good and safe foster family. We were to watch over you and ensure a safe normal upbringing for an incarnate child. The only time we were to intervene was if you showed your non-human heritage. In that case we were given a range of conditions of what to do depending on what happened. As an adult when it showed through, the order was to bring you here and begin training you. We do not know what we are to do once you have been taught all we can teach you of your Ainur ancestry." Anna nodded.

"So basically because I did something very weird involving that tsunami my life amongst the humans has been close up entirely and I am now going to spend however long learning how to be part celestial?" The Angel nodded. "Sooo… Why am I not being returned to my father's people to be trained among them? Why here? Hell, why wasn't I raised by my father in the first place. Presuming there was a good reason for that and me being raised by some random humans in another world with no idea of most of what I am generally, now that life has been set down and put aside why am I not being shown back to him and his fellows for training or whatever? I presume I am expected to mindlessly follow whatever plan has been put down for me." The angel seemed shocked at the rant.

Anna though, now over her basic shock and having skipped straight past disbelief (a part of her instinctively knew it was true and it was a little hard to disbelieve the obvious evidence in front of her own eyes – she was a scientist, her reaction wasn't to deny something it was to poke at it until she understood what was going on), was getting rather annoyed.

"But, this is the course The One set down for you!" Anna gave him an unimpressed look and pointed to herself.

"Free Will. The One had me raised human, and if you pay any attention you know we don't deal well with predestined paths. We're not sheep, we do not follow along blindly. I do not appreciate you closing down my life for me, no matter who ordered it. Now you have what I want is to know the family I have been looking for since I have been allowed to search. I know I need training but I would much rather get that from my kin, people who have more connection to me. The only reason I can think for keeping me away is there is something going on the keep me away from them. But if that is the case tell me, explain to me and give reasons why staying here and letting you train me instead is the best option. I will not follow orders blindly." She got a distinctly affronted feeling from the angel, as well as a sort of sense of patronising superiority which angered her even more.

"You do not know how to leave and we will not show you." She gave the being an unimpressed look.

"Be aware if I am to be a prisoner I am going to do everything in my power to bring the definition of living hell to Heaven. I am more than capable of being the biggest pain in the proverbials you have ever seen to the point you _beg_ my father to take me off your hands. I will not be sitting through any classes, or doing any one thing you want me to until I get a proper real explanation for why I should and should you try to keep me prison I will show how much of a Hell child I can be until I get what I want. Clear?" The Angel was gaping at her, there was no other word for it.

She noticed at that point that she had somewhere along the way, probably quite recently, stood up and was wearing the most antique looking night gown she'd ever seen.

There was a hint of a challenge from the Angel, who had noticed her look at the hideous garment. With a frown she concentrated on it. Within a moment or two it changed to a far more comfortable pair of trousers and blouse that were also far more complimentary. The Angel blinked at her in surprise and she gave a smug look of triumph at not having needed to have even a small trick like that explained. There was a long pause.

"Come." She smirked slightly at the clearly annoyed and angel and her little victory as it was clear that the angel had decided it was above their rank to deal with a stroppy and uncooperative half-valar.

XXX

It was some time later the Angel had shown her to what she could best describe as a chamber for all it fitted none of the things that humans thought of when the word was used, though office probably did a similar job for explaining what wherever she was was.

The being in the chamber when it sensed her presence and coalesced into physical form actually took on a human appearance, even as he turned to the being that had guided her through this place that followed no human rule of space.

"Thanks you Sachiel, you may leave us now." Sachiel simply ceased to be there and Anna assumed that not having a true physical form, that angels could simply think themselves somewhere else. It would be fun to see it she could do something similar, though the fact she was basically incarnated due to her mother made her suspect that even if she could that it would be a lot more complicated than for a celestial being. On the other hand it was definitely something to investigate since she had a feeling it would be her only route out of here if an angel wasn't going to take her.

The new angel didn't speak straight away, preferring to observe her for a long moment and so Anna returned the favour. The form this one had taken was classical to say the least, tall with wavy shoulder length chestnut brown hair and a finely muscled figure that frankly made him look like he'd just stepped out of one of the slightly more militant religious paintings you tended to see in churches.

"Where you going to introduce yourself? I am fairly sure you already know who I am." The being smiled, perfect pink lips curving with amusement.

"I am Michael, child." She raised an eyebrow, deliberately hiding the slight awe.

"Most powerful of the Archangels, leader of the heavenly host and original warrior?" He smiled sardonically at her.

"Indeed. I think you might have thrown Sachiel a little, he isn't used to people who don't do what they are told, he is a reasonable healer as well as warrior but he doesn't deal with incarnates very often. Though I would have thought watching over you for your entire childhood would have given him a little more clue about the fact that you were not likely to follow blindly." Anna snorted.

"I noticed he seemed to have issues. You at least speak as if you are a separate entity." Michael smiled at her.

"It is not uncommon amongst the second choir of angels to speak as such, especially Kerubim who are primarily warriors so tend to have more closely joined mind." She nodded thoughtfully before raising an eyebrow at Michael.

"So did Sachiel pass on our little conversation which sent him running for the manager?" Michael actually laughed at that.

"Yes he did." Anna raised an eyebrow at the Archangel.

"Talking to you is like trying to hold a conversation with a brick wall." Michael smiled wickedly.

"Well it was you who brought up being a pain in the backside." Anna grinned. Instead of answering she concentrated for a moment to see if she could manipulate her environment. The result was a comfortably spinning chair, which she promptly sat on and a desk, which she dumped her feet on. She crossed her arms and looked up at the amused seeming archangel. Another chair appeared on the other side of the desk and he reclined gracefully in it with a beautific smile.

There was a long silence as they just sat there waiting to see who would break first. After some time Anna grey bored but was very much unwilling to give in. She was more than capable of being stubborn when it suited her and she was fighting on the back foot right now.

Instead she began to explore her power a bit, playing with it by making little illusion, summoning and creating items randomly (including a literal storm in a teacup, just because), and then playing with them using what she basically saw as magic for all it hadn't been called that.

As she mucked around she caught a somewhat pained expression on Michael's face. It was interesting to note that she could simply sense his expressions and wondered whether that was because he was an archangel or because he was rather more fully incarnate than Sachiel had been. It was at that point she decided to go a little bigger and sent out her senses somewhat instinctively to see if she could sense the weather systems on earth, or the oceans she had long studied.

"Please stop, before you do some real damage!" Anna grinned at the exasperated looking archangel.

"I was only looking." She said innocently, resisting a grin at his expression as he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"You are not experienced enough that I trust you not to accidentally change the world weather systems or something. You are also far to powerful to be stopped if you much something up and sorting it out would be an obscene amount of work and incredibly difficult considering how ridiculously powerful you are." Anna raised a mischievous eyebrow at him questioningly. Michael sighed.

"You are the daughter of Lord Ulmo, lord of the seas of Ea, which is the world he and the other Valar were given stewardship of. Your mother was a peredhil, half elven, half human. We know nothing of her beyond that and the fact the elven part of her ancestry was of the clan most associated with Lord Ulmo, the Telerin or Lindar as they themselves prefer to be know, though the former name is the more often used format. The One, the entity that creates all and humans often refer to as God, brought you here in his guise of the holy spirit and have told us little regarding you personally." Michael sighed and rubbed his head again.

"We do not know for certain why The One removed you from that world to be raised here, or why he wished for us to be the ones to train you but I suspect that it is because that world is embroiled in what you might term as a god war. I have only been told this because of my position as Leader of the Heavenly Host. If everything goes too badly I may have to mobilise my armies." Anna winced.

"Okay, I will admit that is a pretty good reason to get me out of there. What more can you tell me of this war?" Michael seemed to relax a little as she seemed a tad more cooperative.

"Of the First Choir sent to that world there were originally fourteen…" Anna leant back and listened intently as the archangel told her of the creating of her Father's world, of its marring at the hands of Melkor and of the elves and later humans, and through to the present day. It was sobering and saddening to listen to the tale of what one could do to so many millions. Once Michael was done he looked up to her and found her giving him a serious look that seemed somewhat unaccustomed on the beautiful face.

"Teach me to fight, and to use my magic. I will not fight you as long as you promise to make sure I am able to do as much as I can, that I have the potential to do, to help my people – all my peoples. Oh and that once I am ready you will let me go there to help." Michael nodded with an approving grin.

"I think I like you. Melkor won't though. I intend to turn you into his worst nightmare, and one he won't see coming." The two shared a grin as they very much saw eye to eye, neither noticing the sense of pleasure from somewhere beyond even heaven at their agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

A Story of the Sea

Chapter 2

Standing there, she could feel the gaze of her mentor even as she stepped into the world she had been born in for the first time.

It was very different here from Earth. Starting with the simple fact it was surprisingly peaceful seeming for somewhere that was apparently war ravaged. But then again she was very far away from where the front was now. She knew better than to appear as some unknown ainur in the middle of a jumpy, battle hardened army of ainur who'd probably attack her on sight. Not that they needed her anyway.

No, Anna was here on an entirely different mission and that frankly was protecting people from the aftermath of the effects of the god-war going on known as the War of Wrath, a far too apt name.

Not far away but enough she knew she wouldn't be seen appearing out of thin air, was one of the major refugee camps of Beleriand where all civilians were sent as they were swept up by the passing Ainur army.

Taking a deep breath she began striding towards her destination with a smile on her face.

XXX

The pair guarding the main entrance to the camp straightened and stared at the approaching figure strolling towards them. While on a level she appeared elven, tall with dark hair which shimmered with a silver suggesting Telerin or Sindarin ancestry amongst some probably Noldorin heritage, they both instinctively knew she was not an elf.

After a long moment of staring, one of them called over a teenage boy, one of many who hung around the outside and practised so if needed they could back up the experienced warriors.

"Find the lady and tell her someone who I think is a maia is walking up to the camp." The kid nodded and legged it to where Lady Galadriel, who was running the camp, was supposed to be.

The female stopped as the two guards barred the way with their spears and smiled sardonically.

"Identify yourself!" She looked distinctly amused at him.

"I go by the name of Anna and am sometimes called Gaeriel." They raised their eyebrows at that. Both were in Quenya, 'gift' and 'Sea Daughter' seemed somewhat incongruous as names, especially for someone they suspected to be a maia from the sheer sense of power surrounding her. "I presume from you friendly manner and welcoming way of holding your weaponry that you are not going to let me in?"

She just got a look. Anna shrugged, still smiling and simply walked through the spears, the blades appearing to slide through her as she passed them and then turned to grin at the two shocked elves.

"Not needing incarnate form is a lovely thing, it really is." She turned back to her path and then grinned.

"Oh, you are so nice, you've gone and got who I was looking for for me!" The guards blinked in shock as a tall blond lady, hair also shimmering with the silver hint of telerin heritage. The lady stopped several pace from her and gave her a sort of closed look.

"I was told there was a maia here, but you feel more like Lord Ulmo than any maia, and I know you are not one of the Valar." Anna smiled.

"As I told your guard, I am called Anna, sometimes known as Gaeriel. You are right that I am neither Maia nor Valar. What I am is a tad more complicated than that, what you sense is the fact my father is an ainur, though I have never met him." The lady raised an eyebrow.

"I am the Lady Galadriel, only daughter of King Arafinwë of the Noldor of Aman and an elf well acquainted with the ainur. As granddaughter of King Olwe of Alqualonde I am rather strongly acquainted with Lord Ulmo of the sea, and that is who you remind me of." Anna raised an eyebrow and resisted a bitter thought about how everyone seemed to know her father better than her.

"Something that makes sense." Anna said in the finest style of Michael at his most unhelpful. Her mentor was an award winner for politely but massively unhelpful answers. Galadriel gave her a Look.

"Who is your father?" Anna smiled.

"Its usually polite to tell a the father first that he has a child before everyone else. Uncle Michael and I are both fairly sure he doesn't know I exist." Galadriel raised an eyebrow at her in surprise.

"How? And who is Uncle Michael?" Anna smiled.

"Uncle Michael is my mentor and surrogate uncle. He is the eldest of the Higher Ainur in any world, there are many many more than those that run this world. Michael, who is an Archangel rather than a Valar, is the original warrior. When I was an infant The One, who you call Eru or Iluvatar, simply dumped me on the Angels and Archangels without telling them more than the names of my parents, and in the case of my mother her rather interesting heritage. He gave orders on how he wanted me raised and that was that. But from what Uncle Michael says of when he knew my father before he left the Timeless Halls, where they all existed before Eru called each of them for the world they were to Steward, he wouldn't stand for having a child without doing everything in his power to find me, so he mustn't know I exist." Galadriel nodded. She looked around at the stunning lack of people watching on.

"There seems a surprising lack of people listening for a public conversation – and you seem somewhat free with your words all things considered." Anna smiled.

"One of the things Uncle Michael taught me was how to make people ignore me. No-one sees us. Note even the guards have wondered back to their posts. They won't even remember me arriving, nor will anyone else who could in anyway know anything remember that. Except you." The princess raised an eyebrow.

"Why me?"

"When we were preparing for me to come to this world Michael and I studied up what we could of this world. You are the leader of the refugees. You are the only one who can do what needs doing." She got another raised eyebrow. "Simply put, Beleriand is sinking."

"Pardon?" Galadriel said, going white.

"This war, particularly since the Valar sent their army heavy with maia, is invoking powers too great for the land they are fighting. It is causing the land itself to move and sink. The amount of power is building as well. Soon there is going to be a cataclysm and Beleriand is going to crash beneath the waves. We had to mess with time to get me trained and here soon enough to have a chance of saving as many in Beleriand as possible." Galadriel nodded, face still pale.

"Come." She said decisively. "We will discuss this in more detail. I need a lot more information to plan." Anna nodded and followed her.

XXX

Some time later the two sat in a room that was distinctly patchy, clearly reclaimed after the Army of the Valar cleared out that chunk of land. Galadriel looked unusually drawn for an elf, not that Anna had that much experience of that.

"You said that everyone but me would simply forget your existence? Can you make it so they simply accept you and sort of don't really think about you instead? It would make things easier if you are accepted as my aide without people thinking about it rather than you just being invisible." Anna nodded with a smile.

"That's easy enough to do." She concentrated for a moment. "There, sorted. It will be like I've always been there and no-one will question it." The blond elf gave her a look.

"That is a worrying if quite useful ability." Anna smiled.

"There are many ainur abilities which we are only allowed to use with permission of The One. I am more freely allowed to use my power than most because I am not charged with the stewardship of any world but like all who are outside the Timeless halls I am restricted to prevent the kind of world destroying cataclysm that is the problem right now. Uncle Michael has hammered the responsibility angle quite a lot through my training. Admittedly that might be because pretty much the first magic I did consciously was designed to give him a huge heart attack and had potential to completely screw both the oceans and the weather systems or earth, the world I was raised in."

Galadriel was giving her a look that was somewhere between amusement and a sort of parental despair.

"Do you have children by any chance, my lady?" Galadriel raised an eyebrow. "Its just that look strongly reminds me of my foster mother when I did something stupid as a child."

She laughed.

"I have a husband, that is close enough." Anna snorted with laughter. "Who incidently is mentally lecturing me on not waiting until it is too late to escape the sinking of Beleriand in a quest to make sure every living thing gets out alive." Anna smiled.

"Tell him not to worry, I am more than powerful enough to make sure you get out alive and well." Galadriel smiled at her, then frowned as the lady in front of her looked unsure for a moment, appearing a lot younger than she had.

"Can you ask him not to pass on about me to Lord Eönwë? I wish to remain in control of finding my father and I think the Lord Maia will know who I am instantly and be obliged to tell his lord who I am." Galadriel nodded understandingly.

"Of course lady." She said with a smile. "So shall we get to organising where we're going to send all these people and where? The refugee camp trails down the coast quite a bit." Anna smiled and leant forward to begin the boring bits.

XXX

Within a day they had a plan but before anything could actually be done they had a meeting to get to because it all relied on the cooperation of a group who weren't all that inclined to help. The two of them stood in front of the most senior of the Lindarin sailors who had ferried the army of the valar aiming to be very careful about how they dealt with this.

Galadriel was carefully playing up her own Lindarin heritage as granddaughter of their king and Anna was letting her power out just a bit. She'd carefully manipulated it to be more like that of a maia than that of Ulmo himself, though there was only so much that could be hidden. She was half vala and it showed.

The captain, and a number of his fellows, while ostensibly paying attention to Lady Galadriel, were eyeing Anna curiously. Their gaze wasn't as suspicious as Anna had worried about, they all lived within the gaze of the Valar and were far more used to the ainur and trusting them automatically.

Once Galadriel had finished putting her points to them the captain turned to her.

"You are of the People of Lord Ulmo?" Anna smiled sardonically.

"I suppose you could say that. I am one of the odder ainur out there. I specialise with dealing with the deeper parts of the ocean and noticed the change and effects caused by the army of the Valar and seek to save as many civilians lives as possible. This requires getting them out of Beleriand as soon as possible. The best way to do that is for you, your compatriots and the sailors of the isle of Balar still there to ferry people to a new site further east." The captain nodded.

"So why not simply order us to do this?" Anna gave him her version of Michael's patented 'endlessly patient but thinks you're being stupid' look.

"Eru granted all _mirroanwe_ the gift of free will. No ainur has the right to order anything, we have the right to ask you to do something, but not just to order it. I know this to be the course of action which will save the most lives. I know you are disinclined to help those of Beleriand but I am here in the hopes of convincing you to make the right decision. And it is just that, your decision, not mine." The captain nodded.

"Why should we help out kinslayers?" One of the others asked. Anna smiled sardonically at Galadriel.

"How many kinslayers are in the refugee camps, if I may ask?" Galadriel smiled, knowing damn well what she was up to.

"Aside from me, who killed my Noldoring kin in defence of my Lindarin kin at Alqualonde? None. Those few surviving kinslayers are under Maedhros's command and fighting along side the army of the valar. There are no civilians that are kinslayers that are still alive." There was a slight flinch at the reminder that Galadriel had earned the title of kinslayer fighting _for_ the people of Alqualonde (the only knslaying these elves knew or cared much about).

The two groups stood eyeing each other, not willing to talk for a long moment before the first of the captains stepped forward.

"I will talk with the other captains and get our answer to you this evening." He said with finality. Anna nodded and took Galadriel's arm and disincarnated, reappearing in their planning room.

The blond lady turned to stare at her, looking a little green.

"What the hell was that?" She asked. Anna smiled a little sheepishly.

"That is basically what the ainur do when they disappear. We temporarily shed physical form. We can then regain physical form wherever or whenever we want. You being _mirroanwe_ makes it a lot harder to hold none-physical form for very long but its more than long enough to do the transport." She nodded at the half vala with a frown.

"I've never seen the valar do that and there have been times when they really wanted someone somewhere and that would have been dead useful." Anna nodded.

"I'm not sure they can do that. There is a distinct possibility that Eru restricted them from being able to disincarnate _mirroanwe_ at will – from what I remember when Orome brought the original three kings to Valinor he did that so I know they can but that might well be an exemption made by the One himself. The other thing is its not easy to do. I have more practice than most because I am half- _mirroanwe_ so have to be able to disincarnate a physical form to do that at all." The Noldorin Princess narrowed her eyes at Anna.

"You are Lord Ulmo's daughter that he somehow fathered with an elf aren't you?" Anna blinked. She then reviewed what she'd just said and realised she'd rather given herself away, having come to trust the lady rather quickly. Having watched her particularly while Michael had been preparing her had made it hard to remember she'd only known the lady a day or so.

"My mother was a peredhil actually, but essentially you are right. I know no more than that about either though." Galadriel nodded slowly. She then smiled.

"Is there any way I can be there when you meet the Valar? That is a moment I want to see." Anna slowly grinned and then began laughing, shaking her head.

"I think I should start handing out tickets for that event there are so many people who want to see it." The two grinned and began laughing again.

XXX

They ordered people to begin packing up and preparing to move before the captains got back to them, knowing that those people would have to move one way or another.

That evening the first captain, an ellon by the name of Valandil got back to them with an affirmative answer, promising to ferry the people round to the site Anna and Michael had selected and Galadriel had agreed to.

Of the first shipment were mostly families with the youngest children, but also warriors or enough quantity to protect the new site.

It was not long later they began to see signs of what Anna had warned of. The animals they hunted for food were leaving, themselves sensing the danger. Soon there began to be a noticeable movement of the sea coming in further than it had and the coast began to eat away. The heights of the land seemed to change, almost as if the earth itself was bowing. Any elf could feel a tension to the land that was slowly building as if something was going to snap.

It felt like a snail's pace at which the camp emptied for its new land as they all could feel the tension in the earth and everyone began pushing it as much as possible.

Even as that was happening they were getting reports from the front and knew it wasn't just the land that had a problem. The Army of the Valar was steam rolling towards the final battle of the war and finally confronting an organised army of Morgoth's rather than the bits and pieces they had been sweeping up as they passed.

Anna herself was worked as silly as the rest of them, using her ability to disincarnate to move between the new refugee camp and the old, keeping everything in order, while also keeping a close eye on Eönwë's army to be aware of any issues they had which might affect her plans.

XXX

Eönwë sat with the other senior commanders of the Army of the Valar, taking a moment of rest before the army moved on again. His eyes settled on a silver haired Sindar, part of the great house of Elu Thingol and husband to one of the most interesting princesses of the Noldor.

"Lord Celeborn, you seem distracted?" He asked, noting the elf's mind didn't seem to be there much.

"I am communing with my wife, who is organising the evacuation of the refugee camps to a much further east set of sites." Finarfin's head shot up to stare at his son in law.

"Why is she doing that?" He asked a little sharply. Celeborn gave the elf a guarded smile. It was not that he disliked his father in law but there was a huge gulf between them for all that had happened in the last age and neither had entirely reconciled the complications of their relationship, not helped by the fact Finarfin insisted on still calling his daughter Artanis, rather than by the name Celeborn had given her. Despite knowing his father in law wasn't comfortable with the name he responded by insisting on using the Sindarinised version of the King's name. Petty family warfare at its best as Galadriel had put it.

"Apparently it is patently obvious that Beleriand is sinking and that something big is going to snap in the near future. Thus she is moving everyone she can further east." The king frowned, as did many others. Eönwë coughed, looking a tad embarrassed.

"I forgot that that would be a possibility." They all turned to raise an eyebrow at the maia. He shrugged. "The sheer power of all the maia in this army, especially fighting against umaia and all of Melkor's more powerful minions has invoked some titanic forces. It is affecting the land. It was impossible to predict originally what would happen though we knew we should expect something. I am glad your wife has noticed what it is happening and is reacting." Celeborn gave him an unimpressed look.

"And would it have killed you lot to have paid enough attention for actually give us forewarning? Those are civilians, who have done no harm to anyone and few if any are even rebels, most were born here. You would let them all die as well because some of their ancestors used their free will? The free will granted to all _mirroanwe_ by Eru. The Ainur are set as stewards of Ea not our Alien Overlords. Eru tasked you to care for this world and all that live in it. You were never given the right to order us to do anything, that is the point of us having free will. As such you have no right to condemn us. Either do your damn jobs or take Morgoth (who incidently is entirely your fault, not ours) and get the hell away from us." Eönwë, and everyone else stared at the lord who had got progressively more angry as the speech went on and was now sitting there glowing with a light rarely seen in the Sindar and glaring angrily at the maia who had reared back somewhat.

"How do you know of what Eru tasked us with? How do you know what you have just said?" Celeborn gave him a knowing glare as his lip curled.

"Anna is a member of the First Choir and protege of the Archangel Michael." Eönwë gaped at him. "She's also not very impressed with you lot right now. Having to come all the way from Earth to sort out one of your major mistakes doesn't exactly impress."

The maia was sitting there gaping.

"Atar has sent in another to clear up our mistakes?" Celeborn just smiled at him, eyes glowing wickedly at the maia.

"Well, you are not doing a very good job are you?" He said bitingly. Eönwë seemed rather fearful at that pronouncement. "Anna says to pass on that neither Raguel nor Chayyiel have been summoned, yet."

The maia was pasty at the somewhat smug comments. Celeborn's satisfaction at having got such a response was what was allowing him to hide the fact he now had Anna as much as his wife in his head. When he had somewhat blurted out her existence he had realised what he had said and promptly asked his wife to pass on his apologies. That had resulted in Anna joining the mental conversation with a muttered comment about closing the stable doors after the horse had bolted. She had then been feeding him lines to help with the maia baiting.

The rest of the lords in the tent were looking between the two like they were watching a tennis match between the two, not sure what to say as they were understanding less and less of the conversation.

"I need to meet the lady Anna." Eönwë said, still pale. Celeborn smiled.

"She says 'all in good time'. When the time is right for you to meet you will but you are needed here to do the rubbish collection and she is far too busy preventing civilians from dying from the cataclysm coming that will sink the entirety of Beleriand. Once we've finished recapturing Morgoth then you can meet." Eönwë suddenly snorted and grinned.

"I can tell Michael was her mentor, 'doing the rubbish collection' was exactly how he phrased taking down Lucifer, the original evil and corrupter of Melkor, whose rebellion against The One took a third of those within the timeless halls with him. His sense of humour always left something to be desired." Celeborn grinned at him even as Anna burst out laughing in the back of his head.

"Anna agrees emphatically with that incidently, amongst her laughter at the comment." Eönwë grinned.

"I have a feeling we will ultimately get along rather well. Can you pass on my thanks for her work?" Celeborn nodded.

"I will. She asks that you do not yet tell your masters of her existence. She apparently has an agenda for when they are to find out that she has not explained as of yet." Eönwë grinned.

"As long as I get to be there when she does introduce herself." A piece of paper appeared in Celeborn's hand.

"She says there are now so many people wanting to see that that she has begun handing out tickets, so here is yours." Eönwë looked at the piece of paper and snorted with laughter.

"I definitely think we will get on." The maia said, shaking his head with bemusement.

XXX

Anna and Galadriel looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"When should I tell him that Uncle Michael told me lots of interesting stories of their time in the timeless halls? So basically all the Valar and some of the maia's embarrassing baby stories in essence." Galadriel grinned at her and began laughing again.

XXX

It was as the last ships were getting to the safe zone as Anna called it when she felt the snap of the land finally snappin under the forces being invoked.

It would take some time before Beleriand truly sunk but the final earth movements as the tectonic plates moved under the unnatural pressure and so Anna disincarnated and split her attention between the shores of Beleriand and the battle being waged in earnest.

Morgoth had brought his dragons into play and Manwe had responded with his Eagles, as well as Earendil on Vingilot, the sparkling flying ship the Valar had made him with one of the most famous jewels in the world in her figurehead.

Soon though Anna was forced to turn all her attention to the impending tsunami as most of the continent sunk beneath the water as the land began to settle and sink. The Valinorean plate was now shifting over the plate Beleriand was on and the sheer power of the forces involved made it move far faster than it would have usually done so.

She could sense her father having noticed and standing to protect Aman from the huge waves it had caused in that direction and so set to do what she could to mitigate it on her side without exacerbating the problem.

She carefully worked round her father's own movements, not keep to tip him off to another with high skill in water based power just yet, and channelled the forces to lessen the impact of the waves upon the war ravaged continent.

Eventually it was done and Beleriand was mostly underwater and the face of the rest of the content was irrevocably changed. She paused to observe the new lands before reincarnating in front of Galadriel and practically wilting against the table.

"It is done, Beleriand is sunk. Only a small strip west of the blue mountains exists and even then the land is much changed. I need sleep" Galadriel caught her as her legs gave out and placed her gently in a chair.

"Eat something first, rest and then tell me what has gone on." She said firmly. Anna sighed in relief and happily munched down the food, sagging in her chair. That was the problem with regaining her physical form – that form could be fatigued and very much was by her incredible use of power.

XXX

In Aman all the Valar were together somewhat unusually. Even more unusually, they were not holding council but mostly watching the Lord of the Seas work with tense fascination.

Eventually he opened his eyes as he took his rarely used humanoid incarnation rather than the wave based on he tended to prefer.

"It is done. As Earendil engaged Ancalagon the Black the forces involved caused the snap of tectonic plates we have been expecting for some time now. Thankfully Galadriel's move to evacuate the continent some years ago has lowered the casualty rate significantly so only a few died as opposed to most of the _mirroanwe_ outside of Aman as expected." Manwe frowned slightly as he saw the hints of a frown on his fellow Vala's face.

"There is something wrong?" Ulmo shook his head absently.

"As I was working to limit the damage it was almost as if there was another working with me but I could not sense them at all and was a bit too preoccupied to go looking for that sense. Who or whatever it was saw expertly to protecting the Beleriandic side as much as was possible." They all stared at him in shock. "I have no idea who it could be, because they could well be as good as me at this yet I know not of any in this world who has either the power or skill."

Tulkas snorted sardonically.

"So we have an unkown, probably of the First Choir, running round who is as good as Ulmo at sea related stuff. Can I put forward the motion that until identification we name them Mini-Ulmo?" The rest of them all stared at him for a moment before beginning to laugh softly. The Vala in question rolled his eyes deprecatingly.

"And your sense of humour, brother, is one of the reasons why I rarely attend council with you lot." He was grinning though, so they didn't take it seriously, though Tulkas did pull a silly face at the Lord of the Sea. Still there was a hint of a frown to him, that thankfully the rest put down to lingering curiosity as to the unknown. Well, in a way it was but the Lord of the Sea had an idea who it might be but they had to be too young didn't they? Even if they were grown they'd had no time to train up to that level…

Ulmo couldn't quite shake the thoughts going round his head and the deep mingled grief and longing. A part of him was begging that it was who he was hoping it was…

XXX

Anna and Galadriel stood side by side as the Army of the Valar rode up to the newer refugee camp. It was obvious that Eönwë was the guy at the front of the army, though on one side of him was a golden haired elf who looked a lot like Galadriel and on the other two elves, the first dark haired and baring a strong resemblance to the golden elf and the second a silver haired elf. Anna had no problem guessing who any of them were.

As she waited she caught a flash of a face and hid a grin as she realised she wasn't the only one in the crowd suppressing her aura with the best of them, waiting for the best moment to let it out to play.

Eönwë dismounted when he was about a hundred yards from them and walked the rest of the way, the three lords following with others joining them as the horses were taken by other soldiers.

The tall hansom maia strode forward and greeted lady before looking to the lady at her side with a double take.

Anna took that moment to let out her aura a little and Eönwë's eyes widened even more. There was a long pause and then he took a step back and gave her a profound bow.

"Your Highness." He said in an awed voice and Anna smiled a little awkwardly.

"You know Eönwë, this is the first time I've ever seen that girl even vaguely embarrassed." Standing at Anna's elbow was a tall beautiful being who could not be mistaken for anything less than a valar. Eönwë stared for a long moment before bowing again.

"My Lord Michael, long time no see." Michael smiled wickedly at the maia as he placed a rather paternal hand on Anna's shoulder.

"Indeed, I thought it might be nice to introduce you to my best student, and yes she is better than you." Eönwë gave the archangel an amused look at that comment. "May I introduce Anna, daughter of Ulmo of the Valar?"

There was a resounding silence before Eönwë bowed to Anna again with a smile.

"Well met your highness, and may I express my extreme surprise at your existance?" Anna grinned at him.

"Well met indeed and may I say I have no more idea than you on that one. Eru wasn't overflowing with details when he asked the angels and archangels to see to my upbringing." The two smiled at each other while most of the rest of the people present were gaping. Only Galadriel and Celeborn seemed utterly calm, having been let in on the secret beforehand.

There was a long silence before Galadriel took Anna's hand.

"Come, let me introduce you to my husband and father." And she proceeded to not quite drag the half vala over to the two lords, one of which looked rather poleaxed.

Once the introductions were gone Arafinwë stepped forward and looked respectfully at Eönwë.

"May I ask my lord for a slightly better introduction to the lord?" He said nodding at Michael and the maia smiled, eyes twinkling.

"This is the Archangel Michael, lord of the heavenly host and original warrior. Archangels are of the same order of what you call ainur as the Valar. The senior group are what we refer to as the first choir and that is where both Valar and Archangels are drawn from when Eru creates a world. The second choir is where the maia and angels, our equivalent in that world, are drawn from. Michael's world is the first Eru created and much different from Ea, and Michael is the oldest and most powerful of all the first Choir." Those watching looked suitably awed. Arafinwë bowed to Michael with a soft smile. When he rose that smile turned slightly questioning.

"If it is not too bold to ask, may I ask what you are doing in this world?" Michael smiled.

"It is not. The first is Anna. I view her much as a child of my own as anything and have been watching over her. I intend to make sure she settles in well with her father. If Ulmo does not fulfil my requirements I am quite happy to take her back to my realm and properly adopt her." Eönwë looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You can pass that on if you so wish, with the reminder I have always been the far better fighter if he wants to challenge me."

The maia looked rather amused though everyone else seemed bit shocked.

"Anyway the second reason is because your war against Melkor has gained wider attention than you think. The Valar made a massive mistake in letting him loose and I have been on standby with the armies of the Timeless Halls in the event they failed to clean up their own mess. He cannot be allowed out again and must be confined to this world. We have enough problems with other fallen members of the first Choir in one world or another without Morgoth getting beyond the world he was originally sent to. If Eönwë and this army had failed I would have come in with a much bigger army. The only reason that was held in reserve is because it would have destroyed the entire world in the process. This little army alone destroyed the continent it was fighting on." There were many looks shared between those who could hear. Eönwë looked a little pale.

"I'm guessing that's when those people Anna mentioned would come in, Raguel, Chayyiel and the Holy Hayyoth?" Michael gave a grim look.

"Indeed, those from the timeless halls who are tasked with dealing with the Ainur when we transgress. The Valar are pushing the line a little closely in this affair, and yes Eönwë, you can pass that on to." The maia nodded, eyes wide with fear. Come, shall we settle your army and then we can talk." The maia nodded and followed the Archangel meekly as the elves turned to organise the mass military camp for the surviving army. Anna quietly led them to where they could talk.

XXX

Eönwë twirled a piece of paper in his hands some time later with a smile as he looked at the half vala in the room.

"You know, I am so glad I have a ticket for the scene when you meet the Valar. I issued an order to all my maia to keep their mouths shut regarding you. I think most of them are happy enough to go with that so they can get tickets for the show as well." Both Anna and Michael grinned at him and laughed. The maia then turned to his former mentor.

"Will you be coming along for the show?" Michael grinned wickedly.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. The One has only let me loose in this world for a short time, to make sure Anna is properly settled with her father and I am going to enjoy it to the full. Its not often I get a holiday." Both of them laughed.

"Why do I have this feeling this is going to be an old boys reunion?" Anna asked dryly as the two grinned at each other. They both gave her innocent looks.

"I have no idea, do you?" Michael said, grinning at the maia across from him. Eönwë grinned back that them and shook his head. "We are the paragons of maturity and good behaviour."

Anna gave the two an unimpressed look.

"Of course you are. Whatever. So how exactly are we going to go about giving my father a heart attack?" The two grinned and they began plotting as only three celestial beings could.


	3. Chapter 3

A Story of the Sea

Chapter 3

The three higher beings stood out the way of the sailors with King Arafinwë, watching as the shores of Valinor came into view.

The ships skirted round Tol Eressea to the Jetties used by the Lindarin sailors who brought fish to sell to the other elven races in Valinor. The Valar had clearly warned the elves that the army was returning. Suddenly Arafinwë grinned and rushed to the railings round the edge of the boat and waved at a Lindarin elleth waiting at the front of the crowd. Michael grinned at the other two.

"His wife I would guess?" Eönwë grinned and nodded as Anna pulled an 'aww' face. Both Michael and Anna stood a little back and tightened their holds on their power to make sure no hint overflowed before they were ready. Eönwë noticed the pair of them doing it and smiled wickedly in their direction and grinned even more when both lifted the hoods on their cloaks, their _fana_ being as recognisable as their auras to the Valar.

It didn't take long after that for them to dock, though it was clear that it was far too long for the elf king who was only held back from hanging over the railings by a life of being a senior member of the royal family. As soon as the gangplank was down he was leaving the ship and pulling his wife into his arms and kissing her soundly.

Eonwe followed his somewhat more sedately and then Anna and Michael after him, each careful to keep their identities secret for now.

"Well met my Herald. I see you return in triumph." In front of them appeared all fourteen Valar, smiling benevolently at the returning elves. Eönwë bowed to him and smiled, cheeks dimpling as he did so.

"Indeed my lord. I have also brought you back a rather special guest." Manwe's eyebrow rose at his herald, who held his arm out to Michael.

"The Archangel Michael just happened to pop by and I agreed to him sharing a ship back so he could visit with his younger siblings." They all gaped as Michael dropped his hood and let his aura loose, though still controlled enough no to overwhelm the elves present. Manwe stared at the archangel in pure shock for a long moment before holding his arms out and pulling him into a rough hug.

"Well met, big brother. It has been far too long." Manwe said with a smile. Michael was then passed between all the Valar as they all greeted him fondly to the general bemusement of the watching elves. Those who were still dismounting the arriving ships whispered to those waiting on the shore that were greeting them who the mysterious being was that all the Valar called their older brother.

Once they were done greeting the archangel Manwe smiled at him.

"Make no mistake that we are very glad to see you here brother, but I know you would not be here without reason?" Michael smiled wickedly at him.

"Well there are assorted reasons for being here but the main one actually concerns Ulmo." The Lord of the Sea, once again in his humanoid incarnation, stepped forward with a slight frown. Michael smiled at him, something about the expression clearly not reassuring the most reclusive of the Vala at all.

Michael held out a hand which Anna took as she let her aura out and let her hood drop as her mentor drew her forward.

There was a stunned silence and Ulmo paled in shock as her stared at her.

The Vala wobbled on his feet slightly as he stared at her then in a moment had stepped forward and drawn her into his arms.

"Oh, thank Atar, you are well!" He gasped as he clung to her and Anna quite happily hugged back. Michael watched on with a smile. "When my people could not track you I feared the worst, for all they said it was and being alike atar that took you."

"Well, that answers one question at least." Michael commented dryly. Manwe looked over at him from where he had been watching Ulmo hug Anna with a certain degree of bafflement. Michael smiled at the questioning look.

"Whether he knew she existed, and for that matter, why did he not search for her if he he did, which is actually two questions now I think on it." Manwe raise an eyebrow at him, silently asking for more explanation. "The One, Atar or whatever you choose to call him, brought her to us as a baby with nothing more than the names of her parents and the racial background of her mother, we obviously did not need that for her father. We were given orders as to her upbringing but no back ground. I knew that If Ulmo knew his daughter was alive he would not stop looking for the child so we speculated that he didn't know about her but we needed his side of it before any specific conclusions could be drawn." Manwe nodded as Ulmo finally released her long enough to look at Anna, running a tentative finger down her cheek.

"You look so much like your mother..." He whispered softly and Anna gave a slightly wet laugh as she flung herself back against her father's chest and hugged him again.

Everyone watching sort of stepped back and pretended to ignore the pair to give them some semblance of privacy as both began sobbing against each other in joy and a release of many years of pain, fear and doubt.

"So what can you tell us of our new family member Michael?" Manwe asked with a smile.

"She's his daughter with a peredhil elleth, beyond that I do not know any of her ancestry before she was brought to us, as I said. The only other thing we were told was her name, Anna. When she was brought to us we were instructed to find her a foster family she could have a good normal upbringing with. So we found a wealthy and kind family in one of the most peaceful and civilised parts of our world who wanted a child. They happily took her in and raised her. We had been given a range of instructions of what to do when her heritage inevitably showed through. Thankfully she decided to go full valar as an adult which simplified things a lot because we got to simply edit people's memories to think she had been lost at sea and take her back to heaven."

Manwe nodded.

"I presume you then proceeded to train her up?" Michael nodded with a grin towards Anna who was now standing with her father's arm round her shoulder as they listened in. Anna gave a long suffering eye rolled, though she was also smiling.

"I wasn't that bad uncle!" Michael snorted with laughter.

"You threatened to muck up our world's oceans and weather systems!" Anna poked her tongue out at him while the Valar gaped at her.

"Not deliberately and you were being an arse at the time!" Ulmo raised an eyebrow.

"Why do I get the feeling life is about to get more interesting?" Both of them snorted with laughter as Eönwë grinned.

"Possibly because it takes all of about five minutes round those two to start getting very amusing but often shocking stories of life in heaven?" That comment got a distinctly jaundiced look from the Elder King and three innocently grinning faces.

"Out of curiosity how on earth have you got Anna fully trained? It has not been nearly long enough since she was born." Ulmo asked, squeezing his daughter a little bit. Anna smiled and snuggled against him.

"Atar permitted us to use a mixture of a time loop and outright taking us outside of time itself. Once I was fully trained I entered this world at the point necessary to sort out one of your most massive mistakes." Manwe flinched back slightly at the hint of condemnation in her voice, which was layered with a hint of someone else. Michael's smile turned a little grim.

"And that is an issue we will discuss while Ulmo settles Anna with him in his home." Manwe and the others were more than a tad white at the implications of the comment, while Ulmo raised an eyebrow at the fact he obviously wasn't included in whatever it was.

"Anyway, I believe you lot are here to welcome your army home. I believe most of this lot are disembarked now." Michael said with a smile, and indeed, looking at it the ships had finished letting off their passengers and said passengers had all greeted their family waiting for them.

Manwe took the hint and stepped forward, catching the attention of everyone who had been watching them out of the corner of their eyes curiously and started to formally welcome them back home.

XXX

Ulmo rather proudly showed Anna round his palace beneath the waves, looking just a tad nervous. He needn't have been, as she responded with all the awe of a person who by the age of fourteen had decided to become an oceanographer and dedicated her studies in that direction.

Ulmo grinned at she looked through the transparent walls which allowed her to watch the deep sea life with awe and a massive grin on her face.

"This place is utterly awesome!" She whispered after some while. The Lord of the Sea looked at her with a pleased smile. "I mean I was pretty sure I'd find your home awesome anyway but this is actually more awesome than I expected."

"You were already sure?" Ulmo asked with a smile. Anna grinned at him.

"Well uncle Michael always said I take after you one hell of a lot so I assumed any home you'd build would be something I would love." Ulmo grinned and led her into a comfortable sitting room. The two took a large couch and Anna sighed happily as she snuggled up against Ulmo's side, enjoying her father's affection and the waves of love she felt as he held her.

"Was your childhood good?" He asked her nervously, watching her with soft eyes the hid a hint of apprehension. Anna smiled reassuringly.

"It was good, and my then family was very kind and supportive. For all it is technically not that long, it for me was a very long time ago. Michael has been most of my family for most of my life. A pain in the arse on a regular basis and full of embarrassing stories about just about everyone, but wonderful family." Ulmo raised an amused eyebrow at her.

"Embarrassing stories?" Anna grinned.

"Yeah, he took to telling me bedtime stories at one point and they were universally ones of things the Valar and others got up to in the Timeless Halls when they were young." Ulmo closed his eyes.

"I am very very scared." He commented dryly and Anna grinned.

"Just be glad that you're not included in the chat Uncle Michael is having with the rest of your brethen." Ulmo raised his eyebrow again, very expressively. Anna was quite impressed.

"Dare I ask?" He asked archly.

"Basically their releasing Melkor was a big mistake and their actions afterwards were pushing the edges of what The One allows them so Michael is verbally goring them with a few dire warnings about improving their conduct." Ulmo stared at her in shock. "Apparently you disagreeing about letting Melkor out and cutting off Beleriand and all that lived in it. The valar do not have the right to command the elves to do anything, nor make their care conditional. The way they cut off the Noldor when the whole thing was a result of their own mistakes was also severely not good as well." Her father conceded the point with a little smile.

"So I am the only one not considered negligent because I objected, got out voted and then proceeded to do everything I could to help the elves anyway." Anna smiled at him and grinned.

"Yep. And I am intensely pleased that you are that one Valar who isn't an arse. Meeting the rest of them is going to be so fun." Ulmo grinned and laughed softly.

XXX

The rest of the valar were indeed having a very uncomfortable time.

They were gathered in the throne room of Ilmarin and for all Manwe was seated on his throne and Michael stood before him, there was no doubt as to who was in control. The rest of the Valar ranged around the archangel trying not to let their nervousness show through into their _fana_ as the more powerful being stood before them not needing to look at them all to be the complete centre of attention and make it clear his ire was aimed at the lot of them. Mandos stood beside Manwe, frowning deeply as it was clear those two were the main targets.

Michael stood utterly still as he quietly addressed them. At one point Namo made the supreme mistake of objecting to Michael's point on the subject of their behaviour towards the Noldor and at that moment Michael turned icy eyes on the younger being, stopping him in his tracks.

"I am here as your last warning, _child_ , you are not in a position to object. This is also not a trial – yet. Listen now and listen well, adjust your actions to what I am telling you or else it will become a trial and we all know that the judge will be Raguel and you will be having to defend yourselves from being handed over the Chayyiel and the Holy Hayyoth, which I am sure we do not want." There was the sense of a collective gasp. "Yes, you are toeing that line. Be glad the One is tolerant of mistakes and give you prior warning rather than just lets you walk right in to a mistake that big."

Namo looked almost sulky.

Michael turned back to Manwe with icy calm and took a long breath that was wholly for effect. After a long moment he drew in another breath and began again politely yet viciously tearing into the Valar's behaviour. After a long while Nienna raised a hand tentatively.

Michael looked at her and nodded imperiously.

"May I ask why Ulmo is not here?" Michael gave her a humourless smile.

"Can you not think why he might me exempt?" He asked in the tones of a teacher making a point. This seemed to offend them but the archangel didn't particularly care. Then they looked between themselves, trying to work out what was different about Ulmo.

"He argued against our course of action in the events you have mentioned?" Manwe ventured, trying not to sound unsure. Michael gave them a half smile, eyes still icy.

"Amongst other things. Any other ideas?" He asked and they looked between themselves with a complete lack of clue. "No?"

There was a vague sense of them shaking their heads. Michael sighed again.

"He not only disagreed with you but he went out of his way to do what he was able to counter your errors and do what he was tasked with, unlike any of you. Even those who did not fully agree with a course of action did nothing to mitigate any damage." They all looked between each other.

"He has?" Varda asked with a hint of surprise. Michael smiled.

"Yes." He got a lot of looks for that unhelpful answer but he wasn't here to tell stories, he was here to give them a warning and telling off. He could tell that they weren't very happy but as he said, he wasn't here to make people happy.

"Are we done with questioning who I have called to take to task and who has not?" They all nodded, beginning to look like penitent children rather than rebellious ones being told off. That was an improvement. Maybe he wouldn't be here for the next few millennia getting it their heads.

XXX

"Nice place you have here." Michael said looking round Ulmo's palace. Anna rolled her eyes at him.

"Ignore him _At_ _to_ , he's being deliberately annoying." She said as Ulmo smiled and shook his head.

"Did you have fun goring my brethren?" He said instead and Michael grinned.

"It took a lot of work but I think I've got through their heads, though that was one hell of a difficult task. Namo is particularly hard headed." Ulmo rolled his eyes.

"That is no news. Namo has always been unforgiving and grumpy, possibly because of his depressing day job." All three snorted. That was one way of putting it.

Quite a lot of small talk followed, observant eyes watching the interaction between father and daughter. After some time Michael thought them relaxed enough to ask a question that he'd wanted to know since he'd first been presented with a baby Anna by The One.

"So what happened with your mate?" He asked, trying to be delicate about what was probably a raw question, especially as it was very recent by the Sea Lord's reckoning. Ulmo's eyes went sad in a second. He sighed deeply as he held his daughter close. It was a very long moment before he finally spoke.

"It was not long before Earendil sailed and the kinslayers attacked Alqualonde. I was walking along the sands of Beleriand, trying to deal with deep loneliness. Nienna and I are the only unpaired Valar and I longed for someone to complete me, to provide me the support my brethren have from their partners. As I was walking a storm hit. Some time later I was hailed and saw a lady with a little house on the shore calling me.

When I entered it became clear she knew not who I was and simply thought me an elf caught in the storm. Not willing at the time to disabuse her of that notion I accepted her hospitality and for a time revelled in her company. The longer I stayed with her the more I grew close and fond of her, feeling which she returned. I never told her who I was, not once throughout our relationship in which I revelled in simply being an elf for a little while. It was only when I was begging her to come with me after I had to return to Valinor that I told her who I was in an attempt to get her to come with me for I knew it was not safe where she was."

He sighed deeply again, running his free hand through his hair, unconsciously tightening his grip on his daughter.

"She refused, instead making me promise to return to her and then she would consider it. As soon as I could I did return but it was too late. Her house was burned out and trashed, and I remember searching the building in panic. The only thing I found was a crib and that was the first I knew of you." He looked to Anna with a sad smile. "I could not track you easily and so set my servants to finding your mother and you. They managed to trace your mother fleeing until the orcs who destroyed her home caught up with you. She managed to hide you in a tree before she was killed. All the servants could find on from that was a being akin to _atar_ had protected you from the orcs and taken you elsewhere and could track you no further. I couldn't search for you any further than that, though goodness knows I tried." The two nodded and Anna hugged her father tightly.

"So what are you going to do now? You have Anna back and this war is done." Michael asked, trying to sound off hand about it.

"Apart from my duties? Annoy Namo until he released Lindariel so we can finally live as a proper family." Michael laughed as Anna grinned up at her father.

"Your daughter should be a great help there, while she is my most talented student ever, she is possibly the most annoying person I have ever met, in an oddly endearing way. The One has also decided she has free will, which means she is no way under the command of the Valar, any of them, and I think I have managed to hammer that into their heads." Ulmo's eys were dancing with a wicked grin.

"I sense stories here?" He said, looking between his daughter and the archangel. Michael grinned back.

"Of course, just be warned I have told her all of the incidents from the timeless halls you don't want ever repeated." Ulmo groaned even as Michael geared up for the first story.

XXX

Anna hugged Michael one last time before he returned to Heaven and his own world. As he disappeared Anna sort of sagged back against her father, sad to see the main constant her her life go. Ulmo seemed to understand and hugged her tightly.

"I believe we now have a member of my brethren to annoy." He said after a while, face lighting up with an evil grin and Anna immediately perked up.

Moments later they were standing in front of Namo who gave the pair a long suffering look and rolled his eyes.

"Not yet." He snapped. "I know what you two are up to and you both know I release people with _Atar's_ permission and not before. I will tell you when it is time, just like everyone else." He said sternly and the two grinned at him. Anna then gave him an innocent wide eyed look.

"Uncle Namo, are we nearly there yet?" She said in her most childish plaintive voice. The Lord of the Dead stared at her for a long moment before going to the nearby wall and slamming his head against it.

"If this is _atar's_ idea of cruel and unusual punishment, then he is doing very very well!" Anna burst out laughing and hugged the exasperated vala with a broad grin.

"Just be glad that Uncle Michael just made me promise to give the valar collectively as much trouble as I gave him – this way you get to share it between fourteen of you rather than have it all focussed on one person!" Namo smiled and hugged her.

"So there is some mercy involved then?" Anna nodded. "And Michael put you up to being annoying?" She nodded again. An evil grin spread across the chthonic vala's face. "If it is Michaels fault then I'm welcome to prank him in revenge if I want to aren't I?"

Both Ulmo and Anna's eyes lit up as they grinned.

"I'm more than willing to help if you want?" Anna offered and the three immediately began plotting.

In Heaven Michael shivered as he got that distinct feeling he always got when his former ward had been planning trouble and set to checking his defences.

XXX

Ulmo and Anna stood with a number of other families, all elven and watching the pair from the corner of their eyes with a hint of nerves, outside the Gate of Reunion. Each an every one of them was there waiting for a relative finally returned from the dead.

Soon the gates opened though they were shrouded in fog and a person appeared out of them, only to be swept up by their family.

Eventually, when they were the last two without a family member an elleth with black hair that glowed with a blue-ish silver sheen. Unlike the rest she was accompanied by Namo and Vaire themselves, who were each smiling softly at their brother Vala as they led the elleth forward.

"And finally returned to you is your wife, brother. _Atar_ made some special exceptions for you. The part of her that was human and that should have been sent beyond the circles of this world has been replaced with that of the first choir, truly making Lindariel your equal." Ulmo stared at them in shock before looking at the lady standing before him nervously.

In a moment he had drawn her into his arms and was kissing her soundly.

A moment later they were broken apart by a grinning Anna.

"Ewww, _atto_ , PDA!" The happy couple stared at their daughter, flushed red as both Namo and Vaire burst out laughing, knowing Anna far to well to think she meant that.

Lindariel blinked nervously before holding her arms out somewhat nervously to the girl she instinctively knew was her daughter and Anna flung herself into her mother's arms.

"I missed you nana." There was a soft laugh and the elleth held her close.

Eventually the two separated and Anna began bouncing.

"So Nana, since Name gave us plenty of time to prepare for your arrival..." Both vala and his half valarin wife smile affectionately as the girl began happily talking about just about anything that came to her head. Just before Ulmo took his wife home he turn to smile and nod in thanks toward Namo and Vaire who just grinned and nodded back.

Finite


End file.
